446 Miscellmieous. 



This is at four weeks after exclusion, and it is only then that the 

 young Lampreys take some nourishment from the mud in which 

 they delight to bury themselves. Some cartilages also now make 

 their appearance at the anterior extremity of the chorda dorsalis ; 

 these are the foundations of the basilar cartilage of the cranium. 

 The eyes are still deeply immersed in the skin, but the auditory 

 vesicles are enlarged and the number of otolithes increased. A 

 single olfactory organ, a small cavity covered with a vibratile 

 epithelium, is situated in front of the brain, and receives a short, 

 thick, olfactory nerve. It is remarkable, that four weeks after ex- 

 clusion there was no trace of peripheric nerves, either in the head 

 or body, although the spinal cord is very thick. — Comptes Rendus, 

 Feb. 18, 1856, p. 336. 



CLAUSILIA MORTILLETI. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Cheltenham, March 30, 1856. 

 Gentlemen, — My attention was only very lately directed to a 

 note from Herr Adolf Schmidt, of Aschersleben, in your * Annals ' 

 for January last, mentioning the occurrence of Clausilia Mortilleti, 

 Dumt., near Cheltenham. 



In the autumn of last year I found a Clausilia in this neighbour- 

 hood, which I at first suspected might be Clausilia Rolphii, a species 

 I have always hoped to find in this county. I sent three specimens to 

 the British Museum, with the statement, that if not C. Rolphii, with 

 which I was not acquainted, and the figure and description of which 

 diifer widely from each other and from the species itself in Turton's 

 * Manual,' it was probably CI. Mortilleti, Dumt. I subsequently 

 sent two examples of the same to Herr A. Schmidt, from whom I 

 had previously received continental shells, with the note, that if it 

 was not a very ventricose variety of Clausilia rugosa, it was probably 

 Clausilia Mortilleti. 



In this neighbourhood the species is extremely local. I found it 

 in company with Azeca tridens, among nettles and long grass, in a 

 damp and shaded locality, and did not procure more than a dozen 

 examples altogether. It is not a very well marked species ; but, in 

 addition to structural points of difference, its "habit" is unlike that 

 of C. rugosa. 



I am. Gentlemen, yours obediently, 



Charles Prentice. 



On a supposed New Species of the Genus Equus. 

 By M. I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. 



The Empress of the French has recently received as a present 

 from the Viceroy of Egypt, and presented to the Menagerie of the 

 Jardin des Plantes, two specimens of an Equine animal, which M. 

 Geoflfroy Saint-Hilaire considers to be a new species. It belongs to 



